How to Maximize Your Next Meeting

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Hopefully you’ve already mastered our six steps to a great meeting and now you’re looking for a way to really take your meeting mojo to the next level. After all, so many of us spend so much of our day locked up in conference rooms instead of getting work done at our desks. It’s easy to dread these interruptions in your work day and see them as a mandatory pain in your rear end instead of an opportunity. But opportunity they are. When used in the right way, meetings can be productive. Here are a few more tips that will help you maximize your next meeting:

1. Don’t invite everyone.
Invite the right people, not all the people. Handpick the decision makers, the contributors, the knowledgeable, or the inspired — whoever it is you need at that moment. Think about who can make an impact on the goals that must be met at the end of 30 minutes. The phrase “too many cooks in the kitchen” doesn’t have anything to do with cooking. It has everything to do with making timely decisions.

2. Become a note taker.
In a good meeting, there will be a lot of discussions and a lot of ideas. Instead of jumping in at an inappropriate time, jot down some notes so that when you do get a chance to speak you will touch on all the points you need to make. It’s better to chime in at the end with a well thought-out response than to barge in mid-sentence with an incomplete idea.

3. Circle the conversation back to the agenda.
When you do chime in, make sure your talking points touch back to the agenda and the goals of the meeting. It’s easy to get on tangents and waste time. If it’s necessary, print out the agenda and pass it around to each attendee or write down the three main goals on a whiteboard for all to see. Whenever someone strays from the goals, try to reign them back in.

At the end of the meeting be sure to recap, discuss the next steps, and follow up as mentioned in our six steps to a great meeting. With these tips and some cooperation from your coworkers, your meetings and your entire work day can become more efficient. What other tips would you add?

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